[austinz]

Interesting. From the linked article, it looks like coordinate data was transmitted as well as telemetry. Given the high speed of airliners, ocean currents, and travel time for rescue ships, even minute-by-minute transmissions wouldn't solve the problem of pinpointing the exact location of wreckage/survivors.

[curtis]

In the case of AF447 the flight control system knew something was wrong. In a situation like that increasing the rate of messaging automatically might be a good idea, and could probably be implemented entirely in software. It probably wouldn't help in the case of catastrophic air frame failure out altitude however.